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GBBD - March in the Country Mouse Garden

The first half of March on the central coast of California was sunny and warm, which we enjoyed with a certain uneasiness. Now it's been raining for nearly two days solid and we're not so jolly maybe but are a lot more contented. The ground really needed a good soaking.

I have a few blooms to share, from the sunny spell. I've been too busy planting to take a lot of photos, and more is blooming than I'm showing here. The wild hound's tongue, Cynoglossum grande for one thing. Well, another day, another post.

Mostly what I've been busy putting in are local bunch grasses, and local clarkia,
which I propagated a lot of. I figure I'll just throw a ton of them at the garden
and see where they stick, and figure out why they like it one place rather than another.

With their tiny little blossoms and juicy leaves, redmaids, Calandria ciliata, are covering the whole area where I planted succulents this fall. I'm letting them take over except where I need to let a succulent breathe, or plant something else.

Argh the calla lilies are indomitable! But pretty. But they escape into the wild. Don't plant these unless you want them forever - and they don't escape your garden!

These sweet little violets Viola adunca, can come and stay any time, however. They are slowly spreading in one area, again near some succulents.

Dutchman's pipevine, Aristolochia californica, doesn't bloom much where I grow it, or leaf out as lushly as in Town Mouse's garden. I've started a few other plants in other parts of the garden to see what it does there. But the blooms are are fun to look at.

Ceanothus is the glory of March! This Dark Star bush is over five feet tall, and much wider than tall. The color is richer than the camera shows.

The wildlife garden area (a planted terrace on the woodland side) is not as colorful this year, due to the dry weather. I have watered it every six weeks or so. But the western redbud there, Cercis occidentalis, is starting to take hold. It's been small and wimpy for several years now. It seems to like the dryer weather. The fuchsia-flowered gooseberry is blooming more now than when I took this shot - but still less spectacular than during last year's wet spring. Guess you can't please all of the plants all of the time.

Here's the shot of my pet alum root, Heuchera micrantha. Still the only one blossoming. I took a couple of short hikes recently in some riparian areas - along the San Lorenzo river and Fall Creek, and saw masses of alum root - but no blossoms yet. So there's hope for my other ones. A lot of the alum root was growing prettily mingled with redwood sorrel, Oxalis oregana. I took note: a nice garden companion planting.

Well, just to finish with a splash of color - this is close to what the ceanothus shrubs in bloom right now really do look like. Close up of a blossom.

Now I'm off to May Dreams Gardens to thank Carole and register my bloom day. I'll visit some gardens in the morning - it's off to sleep I go... But you can continue on to view Town Mouse's bloom day post - she is pretty in pink this month!

I enjoyed looking at your collection this month. I have no callas in bloom at this point, which I consider a victory. But I know they'll be baaaaack... It's definitely one of the most desirable of the undesirable plants. The purple shock of ceanothus is terrific. Happy Bloomday!

Our sweet violets continue to spread throughout the forest, and they are just darling! Personally, I'd be thrilled with your calla lilies. The few I've planted never took off, but yours are lovely! Thank you for the tour of your blooms!

I'm surprised how much you have blooming. Until this week our pathetic rain totals clearly set back many of our natives. The ceanothus are starting to bloom, and few two-eyed violets are out as well, but not much else. The dry winter seems to have claimed one of my Philadelphus lewisii, and yet another Winnifred Gilman too. Fickle weather.

(And a little jealous of your calla lilies. I can't seem to get mine to do anything--of course, they're annuals here and stuck in pots, so maybe that's why? I need a happy medium between "escapes into the wild like at Country Mouse's" and "laughs at my attempts to get them to bloom here in NE Ohio"! lol.)

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I posted about how I backed into this hugely fun project here. In this post, I'll provide what advice I gleaned from the web, and show how I extended the dry creek across our south garden, to drain down into the chaparral slope.

I'm not done yet, but it's amazing how much you can do in a short time. Friends gave me all the river rocks - Yesterday, local friends offered me 4 bags of small pebbles which really helps vary the look - a mixture of small and medium river rocks are really required.

So, to get back to the beginning of this project. After I put a short creek for drainage in the succulent bed that is next to the house, I decided to continue it, and break up the south garden layout a new way -- nibbling into Experimental Bed #1 on the left, and rerouting the cross-wise path towards the right.

I played around with the hose quite a bit - and when I was digging out I made more adjustments. I made the river widen on the outer curves of a meander.

Dec 30 2017 6:35 am SaturdayLife is like a leaking sieve, a fishing net with holes and, of course, a boat with growing leaks. Felt sad taking down that spicebush yesterday and still unsure whether such drastic action was warranted.

Sat and looked and poked and trimmed and then went aw F*** it.

Especially [felt ambivalent] since the shrub I was privileging over the spicebush is an ambiguous one, likely a seed of Dark Star ceanothus, that reverted to one or other, or "favored"--as in "he favors his mother's side"--one parent heritage over the other. Because of all its buds. Like being unable to not love the baby cuckoo. Ambiguous heritage. I felt damned if I did or didn't.

I've been busy starting seeds! October is a good time to start a lot of seeds, except for the winter dormant ones -- the ones you have to stick in the fridge three months to convince them winter is over! Those are better done in Feb-March. I'm so happy! Some are already germinating!

I'll write more informative posts about all the stuff I'm starting by and by. This is just a seed-fest!

With the exception of the pipe vine - all seeds are of local California natives that grow on our around our property on a ridge about 6 miles inland from Santa Cruz.

Check out seeds of Aristolochia californica, Dutchman's pipe vine, which I blogged about in my last post - bagging the seed pods worked out great!

Speaking of propagation, I wrote an article for the Sentinel about propagation, as in who propagates the plants for the sale, as publicity for the Santa Cruz County chapter of CNPS and the UC Santa Cruz arboretum fall plant sales, which were today!